Pharmafocus
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Pharmaceutical research and development updates
GSK has announced that the MHRA has authorised its Arexvy respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine for active immunisation for the prevention of lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) caused by RSV in adults over the age of 60.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has announced that it has entered a strategic agreement with Roche for the development and commercialisation of zilebesiran, Alnylam’s investigational RNAi therapeutic for the treatment of hypertension in patients with high cardiovascular risk.
GSK has announced that the FDA has granted fast track designation for its investigational vaccine for gonorrhoea, which is currently in an ongoing phase 2 trial assessing the efficacy of the vaccine in healthy adults aged 18 to 50 who are considered at risk of contracting gonorrhoea.
Eli Lilly has announced results from its two phase 3 tirzepatide studies in adult patients with obesity or who are overweight with weight-related comorbidities, excluding type 2 diabetes.
Novo Nordisk has shared results from the select cardiovascular outcomes trial, which show that a once-weekly subcutaneous dose of Wegovy (semaglutide 2.4mg) reduced the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (mace) by 20% in overweight or obese adults over the age of 45 with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) and no prior history of diabetes.
As of 31 July 2023, the NIH launched the first trials of its ‘researching COVID to enhance recovery’ (RECOVER) initiative.
AstraZeneca has announced results from its tropion-lung01 phase 3 trial for its trop2-directed antibody drug conjugate, developed in collaboration with daiichi sankyo.
Pfizer has announced new data from its phase 2 study, which assessed its hexavalent capsular polysaccharide conjugate group b streptococcus vaccine candidate, gbs6, in development for maternal vaccination in order to protect infants against invasive GBS disease.
Merck, also known as MSD outside of the US and Canada, has announced positive results from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-756 trial, which assessed Keytruda in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with high-risk, early-stage oestrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (er+/her2-) breast cancer.
Sanofi has shared new data from the phase 3 xtend-kids study, which assessed Altuviiio (antihemophilic factor (recombinant), fc-vwf-xten fusion protein) once-weekly prophylaxis in patients under the age of 12 with previously treated severe haemophilia A.
Recent studies have discovered that human neonatal cardiac-derived mesenchymal stem cells can induce wound-healing and reduce inflammation in the digestive system, caused by Crohn’s disease.
Clinical stage biotech company Recursion has announced a $50m investment by NVIDIA, intended to accelerate the development of its AIfoundation models for biology and chemistry, working in collaboration with NVIDIA to optimise and distribute these ai models to biotechnology companies through NVIDIA's cloud services.